February 1, 2010 - All Eyes on M51

All Eyes on M51 The Whirlpool Galaxy, also known as M51, is a classic example of a spiral galaxy. Thirty million light-years away, it is also one of the brightest spirals in the night sky. This composite image shows the majesty of its structure in a dramatic new way through several of NASA’s orbiting observatories. X-ray data from the Chandra Observatory reveals point-like sources (purple) that are black holes and neutron stars in binary star systems, and the glow of hot gas that permeates the space between the stars. Optical data from the Hubble (green) and infrared emission from the Spitzer (red) Space Telescopes both highlight long lanes in the spiral arms consisting of stars and gas laced with dust. The GALEX telescope shows hot young stars that produce great amounts of ultraviolet energy (blue).